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Cloudflare One vs OpenVPN Access Server comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Cloudflare One
Ranking in ZTNA
3rd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
Email Security (20th), Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (11th), Data Loss Prevention (DLP) (22nd), Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (13th), Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection (9th), Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (14th), Access Management (11th), Bot Management (3rd), ZTNA as a Service (7th), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (10th), Remote Browser Isolation (RBI) (2nd)
OpenVPN Access Server
Ranking in ZTNA
9th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
71
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Infrastructure VPN (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the ZTNA category, the mindshare of Cloudflare One is 9.6%, down from 11.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of OpenVPN Access Server is 3.2%, down from 5.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
ZTNA Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cloudflare One9.6%
OpenVPN Access Server3.2%
Other87.2%
ZTNA
 

Featured Reviews

CV
Network Architect at IP Dimension
Cloud security has improved remote access and has reduced costs for smaller client sites
I have used Cloudflare One's Identity-Aware Proxy, and it is quite straightforward from what I have seen so far. The app registration on the Azure side integrates fully into Cloudflare, and I am very satisfied with that part because it is easy to set up. The integration of Cloudflare One's Secure Web Gateway and Zero Trust Network Access works without any issues. That part is pretty automatic, and if you complete the rest of the setup, it comes together by itself with no issues from my side. What makes it nice is that we can actually start replacing on-site firewalls at this stage for the smaller clients because it does not matter if they go to a coffee shop or work from home; they are still secured by the same connection. The hops get shorter and you get better latency. We have done testing to see if it is better. One thing that we did notice with our proof of concept with our current client is that they have people connecting from the UK. When they used their previous VPN solution, uploading CAD drawings and other files to the server took a long time. They mentioned that it is much quicker on Cloudflare One's solution. I definitely believe that is part of the improved performance, and I am satisfied with that as well. What is nice about Cloudflare One is that it makes the setup easier and also easier to train technicians to maintain it. Compared to legacy systems, we do not need to get fancy firewalls in place that are costly. That is definitely also a cost-saver with Cloudflare One.
AS
Network operation center engineer at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
Secure remote access has protected critical data and now simplifies role-based user management
An area for improvement is the pricing model. The concurrent user licenses get expensive pretty quickly as your organization grows, so more flexible pricing options would be a huge plus. Another area is configurational disconnect. While the admin web UI handles about 90% of what you need, the moment you have to do deep, advanced routing customization, you still have to drop back to the command line interface to make those changes. It would be great to see those deeper configurations completely integrated into the web portal. Lastly, it would be awesome to see native support for newer, lighter protocols through WireGuard built straight into the platform alongside standard OpenVPN for better performance efficiency.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Cloudflare Access is part of the Zero Trust philosophy."
"Cloudflare DDoS mitigates DDoS attacks."
"What makes it nice is that we can actually start replacing on-site firewalls at this stage for the smaller clients because it does not matter if they go to a coffee shop or work from home; they are still secured by the same connection."
"For Cloudflare Access, I am using the free plan...The most valuable feature is their protection."
"It is a stable solution."
"Cloudflare Access is a stable solution."
"Enables me to work from two locations."
"The best feature is rate limiting. If I'm expecting 500 visits per hour, Cloudflare will limit the requests if I suddenly get 50,000."
"In my opinion, the most useful function in OpenVPN Access Server is the user management feature, which I regularly use to manage the users and the concurrent sessions."
"The most valuable features of OpenVPN are its ease of use, client familiarity, end-user familiarity, operating system integration, and price points."
"Simple to install and maintain, easy to find documentation or help in Google."
"The solution is reliable, easy to use, and open source. It's free at no cost."
"The most valuable feature is that I can access my local network remotely and avoid doing all the port forwarding and redirections, and so on."
"The most valuable feature is stability."
"A valuable feature for us is its ability to see the new Citrix server as a local server within the company. And it allows us to test abroad."
"We use the solution to access remote services."
 

Cons

"The tool should provide on-premise versions. Currently, all versions are cloud-based."
"For the topic of improvement, providing some training material is one of my suggestions."
"From a logging perspective, it is still a bit difficult to see exactly what users are being blocked with the current views."
"The free plan has limitations. For example, I can only set up three rules, and the application firewall is unavailable."
"The pricing is an area that can be improved. Pricing, as far as I recall, was the source of our problems."
"Operating and tuning the product is difficult."
"There are premium tier live service and lower tier live service, so we opted for the lower tier. But there is no medium tier where we pay a little extra and get a bit more service. So if that can be improved."
"The onboarding process can be improved a little bit."
"I want the tool to be faster. We have experienced connectivity issues while using OpenVPN and FortiClient."
"Everything in OpenVPN Access Server is very good, but the price is expensive."
"OpenVPN Access Server needs to have fewer updates."
"When there are too many concurrent users trying to connect at the same time, there may be a bit of a bottleneck."
"I think right now the GUI part of it is locked out behind the pay wall. It could use something that gives it a very basic, minimal, graphic interface for logging in, for the community version. That would probably be a good step forward."
"The logs should be made easier to read."
"I think OpenVPN Access Server's setup can be just one click; currently, it takes multiple steps, and when you forget the admin password, you are locked in."
"There is always room for more security features."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price tag is no longer $200,000, but rather $300,000 to $400,000. It's twice."
"The solution's pricing lacks transparency."
"The prices are slightly expensive."
"My company has to make yearly payments towards the licensing costs attached to the solution. There are no hidden charges apart from the licensing costs of the solution."
"The pricing of the solution is cheap. The licensing cost is also very low. I rate the cost and pricing a three out of ten."
"The pricing is somewhere in the middle. I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten."
"Cloudflare Zero Trust Platform's pricing is good."
"The solution is not that expensive."
"At one point I had to purchase addition connection licenses. I was very pleased with the pricing and licensing; so much easier than navigating the confusing jungle of Microsoft and Cisco licensing and pricing. That alone made the product a delight to manage."
"It is free, you buy support."
"It is an open-source solution, so we don't pay for anything."
"The solution is free of cost."
"Open VPN Access Server is open-source and free of charge."
"I don't need to pay for its license since it is an open-source tool."
"The licensing has a fixed pricing."
"The solution was free of charge."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
18%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Large Enterprise13
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business45
Midsize Enterprise14
Large Enterprise25
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Cloudflare Zero Trust Platform?
In my opinion, Cloudflare One can be improved mainly through compatibility, as the integration should be much simpler because it is currently too closed and too proprietary. Regarding additional fe...
What is your primary use case for Cloudflare Zero Trust Platform?
Cloudflare One's primary use case for my organization is to protect servers and to provide remote access with the VPN, strong authentication, and DDoS protection. The integration of Secure Web Gate...
How does Fortinet FortiClient compare with Open VPN Access Server?
Fortinet FortiClient is a feature-rich solution that is easy to use and deploy without sacrificing safety and security. It has a very fast connection rate and has a built-in VPN. With this solution...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for OpenVPN Access Server?
The pricing and setup costs for OpenVPN Access Server are on the high side since licenses are not user-dependent but based on the number of connections established. With two free simultaneous conne...
What needs improvement with OpenVPN Access Server?
There are definitely areas for improvement. A broader network level access faces challenges, and the clustering configuration seems insufficient, posing a single point of failure. Moreover, patch m...
 

Also Known As

Cloudflare Area 1 Email Security, Cloudflare Bot Management, Cloudflare Gateway, Cloudflare Zero Trust Platform, Cloudflare DDoS, Cloudflare SASE & SSE Platform
OpenVPN
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

23andMe
Verizon, Amazon, Disney, HP, Microsoft, IBM, Samsung
Find out what your peers are saying about Cloudflare One vs. OpenVPN Access Server and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
915,287 professionals have used our research since 2012.